Ant Mildenhall - Ironman Wales

As #ironmanwales kicks off this morning, we recap the legendary performance in 2024’s dragon taming by @antmildenhall

Starting the swim in frankly less than ideal conditions, ant set off in the 1:40 group, which provided to be predominantly breaststroke swimmers that he needed to navigate past in choppy waters. Swimmers were being pulled out of the water left right and centre, and the second breakfast of seawater wasn’t particularly welcome. Ant got through the swim in a respectable 1:43 given the conditions - and onto T2.

The bike leg was met with soaking roads and a sickness from the saltwater. This lead to some cramping that ant managed by forcing some food in. Some tactical power walking on steep slippy roads saw ant pass people still on their bikes. Towards the end of the bike ant started to feel better, he was into T2 with just under 3 mins ahead of the time cut in hand. Out onto the run and where the race really started.

Ant overheard on the radio he was the last athlete to leave transition. Far from last place however, Tenby is famous for a very high dnf rate and especially in 2024, hundreds of athletes had either retired or not made the time cut, off for an earlier-than-planned bath and a pint, much to Ant’s envy! He had the small task of a hilly marathon to complete.

Ant saw his partner, Liz around mile 8, and at this point he thought he was going to run out of time, and thought of trudging on for another 18 and a bit miles was daunting. However Liz pushed ant through another four miles. Then Steve Snary, (husband to Ant’s niece) arrived on the scene - having completed IM Swansea 70.3 this year, and set to take the dragon in 2027 (largely based on Ant’s amazing 2024 performance) - Steve was on the watch calculating Ant was right on the time cut but had to get moving. 10 miles to go. The walk run strategy was paying off. Darkness had well and truly fell by this point. The laps ticked by, still on for finishing under 17 hours, but only just - the red carpet in sight, hundreds stuck around into the small hours to cheer Ant in - 16:59:24. Dragon Tamed, IM Wales was conquered. 1633/~2500. Amazing Ant. This is what it’s all about.